A New Chapter in Wound Healing: Development of a Self-Powered Electric Bandage
A collaborative research team, Professor Byung Ok Choi from the Department of Neurology at Samsung Medical Center, Professor Jong Hee Lee from the Department of Dermatology at Samsung Medical Center, and Professor Sang Woo Kim from Yonsei University’s Department of Advanced Materials Science and Engineering, has developed a self-powered wound treatment electric bandage based on electromagnetic energy harvesting technology.
The electric band stimulates wounds with electrical impulses, promoting the migration of nearby fibroblasts. This process enhances blood flow, resolves inflammation, and stimulates collagen secretion at the wound site, facilitating cellular regeneration. In the cell migration experiment, when an empty mimicking a wound was created on a culture dish and electrical stimulation was applied, 95.6% of the surrounding cells migrated. Based on the same principle as new skin growing over a wound, the difference was significant when compared to the 63.1% cell migration effect observed without electrical stimulation.
The newly developed electric bandage operates without the need for battery charging or external power supply by utilizing energy harvesting technology that converts 50/60 Hz electromagnetic waves emitted from common electronic devices such as TVs, laptops, and mobile phones into electrical energy. Furthermore, no side effects from electrical stimulation were observed, and no DNA damage caused by the stimulation was detected, making it a safe option.